The present invention relates to defensive armor and, more particularly, to devices for supporting panels of defensive armor on a substrate.
Defensive armor is employed for protecting ground, sea and air vehicles, and buildings from projectile damage. One class of defensive armor includes that used on vehicles, such as tanks, whose structure is formed of a thick, high-strength material. Tanks are, thus, considered hard targets for projectile weapons requiring special weapons for their destruction. A further class of armor, with which the present invention is concerned, employs a curtain of armor panels or appliques suspended and spaced in front of a substrate. A space between the armor panels and the substrate permits the armor struck by a projectile to absorb a substantial part of the shock without transmitting it to the substrate.
For present purposes, the term substrate may be taken to include any type of surface requiring enhanced protection against projectile impact. A substrate may include, for example, a fixed structure such as a building, a vehicle such as a truck or armored personnel carrier, a sea vessel, or portions of an aircraft. For concreteness of description, however, the following disclosure is cast in the environment of a substrate consisting of a vehicle.
Vehicle armor panels are irregularly shaped to conform to the shape of a particular vehicle and are secured to the vehicle by bolts passing through holes bored in the armor panels into threaded bosses affixed to the substrate. Since they are irregularly shaped, damaged panels cannot easily be replaced in the field and, thus, a damaged vehicle must be removed from service. Armor panels are large and heavy and maneuvering them into position for installing the mounting bolts is difficult. Furthermore, it is difficult to maintain tolerances sufficient to align the holes in the armor panels with the holes in the threaded bosses during installation. This latter problem becomes particularly difficult when armor panels on a damaged substrate are replaced.
One solution to the problem of large and irregular armor panels is found in smaller modular armor panels which, due to their smaller size and weight, are easier to install and can generally conform to the shape of the vehicle. Since the modular armor panels are smaller, a larger number of armor panels is required, and the problem of a suitable mounting system is exacerbated.
In one possible technique, flanges are affixed to opposed edges of each armor panel. Bolts pass through holes in the flanges into threaded bosses affixed to the substrate. The holes in the flanges may be made oversize in an attempt to accommodate misalignment between them and the threaded bosses. This technique, besides only partly dealing with the misalignment problem, also reduces armor coverage due to the presence of the flanges.